


The Battle of Betazed, through the conversations of Lwaxana Troi

by hathycol



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Battle of Betazed, Gen, Lwaxana is the best, The Great Livejournal Import of 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-04-27
Packaged: 2018-10-24 14:56:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10743999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hathycol/pseuds/hathycol
Summary: Being the leader of a resistance cell was no fun at all, particularly when it was combined with childcare.





	The Battle of Betazed, through the conversations of Lwaxana Troi

**Author's Note:**

> Written for an anonymous prompt: "“Occupying Dominion forces, meet the unconquerable Lwaxana Troi. P.S. She’s got family.”
> 
> I wrote this in 2010 and moved over to A03 as I shut down my livejournal. Forgive my younger self. I still think Lwaxana is the best, though.

When it ended, when the Federation relief ships landed and Lwaxana sat down in the wreckage of her house with only Barin and the clothes she stood up in, she realised that the last – weeks? Months? She wasn’t even sure – had blurred into one awful whole. Only the words stood out.

_before_

Lwaxana made sure that her wig was on straight and her cleavage was shown as its best before answering the comm.

“Hello, Odo!” she trilled, sounding genuinely delighted as an image of the Changeling appeared on screen. “How is life on the station?”

“Busy,” he replied dryly. “The war is making life a little difficult here. How is Betazed? Your family?”

“Odo,” Lwaxana said fondly, “you’re my husband. I might not know you that well, but I do know you’re not here for a chat.”

Odo sighed, and put his hand under his chin. “You’re right. I’ve heard rumours that Betazed is very near a Dominion line. _Too_ near. I’m sure that Starfleet knows about it, of course, but how are your planetary defence grids?”

Lwaxana laughed, surprised. “The Dominion won’t get to Betazed, Odo. We’re perfectly well protected by the fleet, and we have a strong planetary protection system.”

“I know that, but I heard that your grid hadn’t been updated for half a century, and the fleet…”

“My daughter serves on the flagship for Starfleet,” Lwaxana snapped, shocking even herself. “I know what dangers the fleet are in. Believe me.”

“Ah,” Odo had the good grace to look embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I knew that, of course, I’m just worried for you.”

Lwaxana gave a sigh, letting her shoulders slump a little. “It’s fine, Odo. It’s not your fault she chooses to stay on that ship. Betazed will be fine though – let those awful Jem’Hadar try!”

“Madam, I doubt even a fleet of Jem’Hadar warships could best you.”

“Quite right! Now, let’s talk of more pleasant things. Barin is growing up much quicker than I could have imagined…”

\--

_after the skies burned_

When the Dominion came to her door, though, Lwaxana was prepared. The power to her house had shut down at the same time that Betazed had lost the protection grid, and starships had burned in the sky but she tried to protect what she could, keeping Barin near at all times. She wished bitterly that she had more food in the house, and hoped that she would have enough to last for a time.

The knock at the door was a shock, however. She held tightly on to Barin, and hoped his mind wouldn't register her fear as she opened the door to be greeted by a troop of five Jem'Hadar soldiers and more surprisingly a female Vorta leading the group.

“You must be Ambassador Troi,” said the Vorta, with what she clearly thought was a winning smile. “My name is Eris, and I do hope that I and my Jem'Hadar can enter your home.”

“No,” Lwaxana said flatly. “You are already on my planet, and that's bad enough. I will not permit your soliders despoiling my home.”

Eris's smile didn't change. “I'm sorry, I didn't explain myself. My Jem'Hadar and I are going to enter your home, and it's well-advised that you don't object. The young ones of this planet scream _so_ much when we do any damage to their parents. So, will you stand aside and let us enter.”

“Well, you'll have to forgive me if my hospitality isn't up to much, then,” Lwaxana said with a tight smile, and stepped aside. “ _Somebody_ has turned my power off.”

“So kind,” Eris beamed. She turned to her small band of Jem'Hadar. “You two, follow me in,” she commanded. “The rest of you, fan out and keep an eye on the area.”

The Jem'Hadar opened with frightening speed, two of them barging into Lwaxana's house, leaving Lwaxana to trail behind with Eris. “Please, lead me in,” Eris said, the insufferable smile refusing to leave her face. Reluctantly and slowly, Lwaxana lead the Vorta into her living area.

“You may as well sit down,” she said stiffly. “It seems I no longer have a choice.”

“There's always a choice, Ambassador Troi,” Eris replied. “Still, I'll sit. The Jem'Hadar are happier standing, in my experience.” She settled herself into the biggest chair in the room, leaving Lwaxana sitting in the smaller chair designed for guests.

“Well now,” Lwaxana said. “You're here. What do you want?”

Finally sat down, she took a moment to try and concentrate on the mind of the Vorta sat opposite her. The Jem'Hadar she had already written off as dead losses – their minds were tactical, and full of anger, and a desire for the drug they called the white. There was nothing to be gained there, but she hoped that the female Vorta might give her something useful.

“Ah, you're trying to read my mind,” the Vorta said, sounding genuinely delighted. “Do you know, it's lovely to deal with a species that invades minds so politely. You won't get through, of course. Not all Vorta can resist psychic attack, but the Founders bred enough of us to have some limited power. You won't be able to get through to any of us, Ambassador Troi.”

“Apparently not,” Lwaxana said, and sighed. “Is that why you're here? To prove that we can't read you?”

“Oh, you'd have found that out in your own time. No, I'm here to offer you to the friendship of the Dominion.”

Lwaxana nodded slowly. “Fine. Why me?”

“Oh, several reasons. You are, after all, a daughter of the Fifth House of Betazed, the Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Riss, and Heir of the Holy Rings of Betazed. Your daughter serves on the flagship, and you are one of the most important ambassadors in the Alpha Quadrant. Even your husband is a Founder! The Dominion researches its new members, and we want to assure you that we can keep all of these titles in tact if you will show your people that we really mean you no harm and this can all be done _quite_ peacefully.”

“Peacefully?” Lwaxana shouted suddenly, leaping out of her chair. Startled, Barin began to cry. “You come to this planet, you kill innocent Betazoids, you ruin this ancient civilization that has never committed a harm to another race, _never_ , and you call this peacefully?”

“Ambassador Troi,” Eris said calmly, “you have seen the Jem'Hadar now. You have no weapons. Thus far, this is the peaceful way.” She looked at Barin, and allowed disgust to cross her face briefly for the first time. “You should tend to your... infant. In the meanwhile, I implore you to lead your people peacefully and allow them to embrace the Dominion as the friends that we could be, if you let us. We won't hold your previous Federation membership against you at all.”

“Get out,” said Lwaxana coldly. “I am not afraid of you, and I am not afraid of them.” She pointed at the Jem'Hadar soliders to emphasise her point. “You will leave, and you will leave now.”

\--

_the ration queue_

‘Mrs Troi, I wouldn’t even know how to begin scrambling a code to get past the Dominion.’ The blond man had an outward expression of schooled nonchalance, carefully looking anywhere than at Lwaxana, keeping the patrolling Jem’Hadar carefully in the corner of his view.

‘Nonsense!’ Lwaxana thought desperately. She had waited a week to engineer this meeting, casually standing in apparent silence in the queue for rations. She had tested to see if the Jem’Hadar had the ability to listen in on Betazed conversations, but thus far it seemed safe enough. She still hadn’t tried it out near a Vorta, though.

‘Starfleet will come without us appealing to them. We’re too near Vulcan for them to let this go on for long. If we just keep our heads down…’

‘Keep our heads down?’ Lwaxana thought furiously, trying carefully to keep her face schooled in casual indifference. ‘They’re already taking people away in the night. We can’t wait any longer for Starfleet – if we can just get a message to them, give them some information… and I know that you used to trade a lot of goods you shouldn’t have been doing. You should be an expert at this.’

‘I can’t risk my family to build a communicator!’ the man thought desperately.

‘You don’t. You _won’t_. We already have the communicator, we just need someone to scramble out a signal. I won’t take no for an answer – we all have family we need to protect.’

The queue moved forward very slightly. ‘Fine. But don’t bring it to my house.’

‘Then it’s agreed. We’ll keep your family safe.’

Lwaxana hoped that was true.

\--

_a phaser (slightly used)_

Being the leader of a resistance movement was absolutely no fun at all, particularly when it came to combining it with childcare.

“Please, Jazon, just hold him for a while.”

“And how am I meant to fix this shoddy excuse for a phaser and care for your child, Lwaxana?” The engineer was radiating exhaustion and hunger but then, so were most Betazoids these days.

“I have been on my feet all day, trying to find out from that _vile_ Vorta woman where they’re taking the people that go missing in the night. I am spending all night trying to fix up on the _only_ weapons cache on this planet, and tomorrow I will do it all again, will you _please_ just give me a moment’s peace and hold my beautiful but heavy baby?”

Lwaxana shouted the last part, and Barin started to cry again. Jovan didn’t even look the slightest bit ashamed.

\--

_a threat realised_

“We know you’re there, Ambassador Troi!” called Eris in an unnaturally loud voice as the warship passed over Lwaxana’s house for the second time. “We could have taken you captive, or killed you and your child at any time. We want you see this!”

The weaponry thudded into Lwaxana’s house again as she watched from a distance, horrified. Jem’Hadar soldiers surrounded her house impassively as Eris continued her diatribe.

“You could have been a friend to the Dominion! This is what happens if you stand up the Dominion, and sneak off in the night to form resistance cells, after begging me all day for more food rations for your people. You could have saved yourself all this!”

‘Lwaxana, we have to go,’ Jazon urged, fear rolling off him.

Lwaxana thought about the Sacred Chalice of Riss, and the Holy Rings as her house burned. She cried as she was guided away by Jazon, but was consoled by the image of taking one of the phasers they were painstakingly storing and shooting Eris in the chest.

\--

_a relief mission, of sorts_

'There’s someone coming,” Jazon thought urgently. Inside the cave that had become the resistance centre, Lwaxana grabbed a phaser. 

‘Jem’Hadar?’ 

'Betazoid,’ Jovan confirmed, ‘but I don’t know her.’ 

Lwaxana's hand curled tighter around her phaser. Not every Betazoid had spurned the offer of the Dominion’s friendship, as the resistance cell was beginning to discover. This new camp was temporary, though, and only known to a select few. Lwaxana reached out desperately, hoping this new person was one of the people she’d quietly approached in the days before the Dominion had destroyed her house, hoping that she’d recognise the mind and not give herself away. 

"Stand down!” she cried out loud suddenly. “Stand down! It’s my daughter! Thank the Four Deities, it’s Deanna!” She made to run out of the cave, but forced herself to stand still for a moment, and waited for Deanna to be escorted into the cave by Jovan. 

"Ah, Deanna,” she said airily. “So good to see you. How have you been?” 

"It’s good to see you too, Mother,” Deanna said with a smile, before running to Lwaxana and holding her tight. ‘I thought you were dead,’ Deanna thought fiercely. ‘The house was gone, and there was no sign of you…’ 

'Darling, it takes more than a little invasion of the planet to stop me.’ She pulled away gently from Deanna. ‘Have you met Jovan? He’s been quite marvellous in helping replenish weapon stocks, but we could do with a little help from Starfleet, I will admit. Is Jean-Luc here?’ 

‘I’m part of an advanced scout party, Captain Picard is waiting to hear from us… I’m glad to see you too, Mother.’ 

'I’m glad to see you too. However, I have a quite large resistance cell to lead here, and I could really do with knowing some intelligence from outside. We assumed, of course, that the Tenth Fleet was destroyed? Here, you should probably see some of the layout of the caves we’ve discovered…’ 

"Let me look at you, Mother,” Deanna said, out loud. Reluctantly, Lwaxana took a small step back. “How bad has it been? Starfleet’s intelligence was sketchy.” 

"I told you, I can cope with anything.” 

“Really?” 

Lwaxana took a deep breath. “They’re starving us, Deanna. They make us queue every day for food, and we don’t always get it. They take people in the night, and no one know where. There are Betazoids working for them. It’s been very, very bad Deanna, and I wish I had never lived to see this, and I am going to make them _pay_ for what they’ve done to my people.” 

"Just as I thought, then,” Deanna said grimly. “Shall we go and look at your weapons cache, Mother?” 

_\--_

_an epilogue_

"If you hadn’t laid the groundworks, this wouldn’t have happened,” Deanna said. “You saved Betazed, not the Federation. You should be proud, Mother.” 

Lwaxana looked around at the scorched earth that had been her family’s house, Barin playing in the ruins. “So that’s the Dominion defeated, then.” 

“They’re still fighting the Breen in some sectors, but yes, I think it is.” 

“Fine.” Lwaxana stood up. “That’s the last time they’ll occupy _my_ planet, then.” 


End file.
